Seven Deadly Sins
by SleeplessShinyOne
Summary: A certain enemy of the Pharaoh and his gang of equally revenge-driven comrades rule the desert. They're legendary for their merciless treatment of enemies and untraceable crimes. But what will they make of a girl they rescue from drowning in the Nile? Rated M only for certain chapters and I will put warnings in each of those chapters' descriptions, so it's technically rated T plus.
1. Death Actually Has Arms

**A/N Hey, listen up!**

**Thanks for clicking on my story, if hesitantly because of the intimidating M. This is not all M-rated, actually only one or two chapters will be. They are very loosely M-rated and they're mostly just to be safe. Read my AN's. I will always warn when a chapter is about to be M-rated. To start it's K rated, and will mostly actually stay K+ with some cursing. Please cut me some slack, and the M-rated things do not destroy souls. They're half-lemons, limes, if that.**

**Enjoy!**

**Shiny**

* * *

><p><em><strong><strong>Holly's<strong> **POV****_

**I WAS DROWNING.**

My head submerged in the murky green water for what I knew would be the last time. I gurgled dizzily and my arms flailed hopelessly toward the surface, where light and air were waiting to sustain my failing life. So close, but so far...

I closed my eyes, ready to let the strong and inevitable grasp of death surround my body. As a matter of fact I did feel death's arms close around my chest, trying to take me.

Wait... Death actually had arms? I thought that was a myth.

Air whooshed into my mouth with a suddenness that caused me to choke violently, coughing up water all over the sunlit afternoon's hot, muggy stillness. Wait... the burning sun that shone on my _alive_ body and my _working lungs!_

I gasped for breath, vowing never to take life for granted again.

Strong hands pounded on my back and I realized I was being carried to the shore of the Nile.

Heaving and panting hopelessly until I could breathe normally, I closed my eyes to relax, and I promptly fainted from exhaustion and delayed shock.

*Two Hours Later*

The rays of baking heat in Egypt were like Hell's eternal furnace, attributed to jealous punishment of the gods toward their people.

The legends were very true, so it seemed. The merciless beat of the sun behind my eyes, throbbing in my head, is what woke me.

I thrust my arm up in front of my face to block Ra's angry glare... But then I immediately sat up, remembering all in a flash what had happened.

My boat had capsized, Death had almost claimed me, I was on the run from my exchange family, my regular family was going to kill me for this, and then something in my memory about were five men standing around in a circle staring curiously at me.

_**THERE WERE FIVE MEN STANDING AROUND IN A CIRCLE STARING CURIOUSLY AT ME?**_

I didn't really remember that part, mostly because that was what was happening now.

"So our... captive... is awake," the smallest man said quietly. He was a slim, quick-looking fox-faced brunette, clad in just a customary Egyptian linen tunic and an open, sand-colored robe that was many sizes too big for him.

With that scar on his face he looked rather intimidating, I reflected nervously.

"She isn't our captive."

The speaker was much taller, with sharp features, small ears and dark blond hair down almost to his chin. When he blinked I was startled by his cruel, evergreen eyes. He was also shirtless and dressed in the same type of cloak as the previous man, except his was a dark blue. Scars crisscrossed his muscular abdomen and chest.

Another intimidating one... I shivered involuntarily.

With a buzz of dread in my stomach I looked around, swiveling my head. I winced at the slap of my soaked curtain of long red hair against the bloody cuts on my back.

The rest of the men were harsh-eyed and scarred and tough-looking as well.

_Who were they and what were they doing out this far in the desert?_

While I contemplated my puzzling situation, the fox-faced man turned to his green-eyed companion.

"Come on. He said to find fish, not little girls drowning."

"Aw, Xarius. When was the last time we had any fun?"

"Well you weren't even the one to jump in and rescue her, so what was fun about that?" the smaller man, Xarius he had been called, said in a somewhat annoyed voice.

An idea sparking in my brain, I glanced at all of the mens' hair. None of their heads looked wet.

So none of them had jumped in to save me.

Then who had? I pondered.

Fear bubbling inside of me, I ventured nervously, "Um, Mr..."

"She speaks Egyptian!" snickered a tall, lanky boy with black hair and the men all roared with laughter. Their coarse and raucous laughs almost scared my question out of me, but Green-eyes smiled a wolf's smile and shushed them, gesturing for me to speak.

"Yes, little Cleopatra, Daughter of the Nile?"

They burst into hilarity again at his nickname. Their inside jokes were infuriating me, and I crossed my arms and frowned at their immaturity. "I wanted to know who saved me!" I outburst, then covered my mouth with my hand, realizing they could overpower me one on one, let alone five on one.

"You'll meet him soon enough," the emerald-eyed one said softly, then put his fingers in his mouth and gave an ear-piercing whistle.

After a single heartbeat, a majestic and muscled horse galloped gracefully up to us. My mouth dropped open in shock- horses were rare here, and these men didn't exactly look like the richest people in Egypt.

"Wh-what..." I managed before Xarius lifted me up as if I were made of feathers and tossed me none too carefully onto the horse. He climbed on in front of me.

"Hold on to my shoulders, girl."

"What? No wa-AAAAHHHH!" I shouted as the horse began galloping at a maniacal speed and I grabbed the man's shoulders. I hung on for dear life as the wind whipped in my face and the sound of horse hooves covered my screaming. I glanced back over my shoulder as the beautiful light and colors of an Egyptian sunset washed over the horizon and turned golden the disappearing river behind me.

-I'll update soon! Reviews are loved. 3 Shiny-


	2. Dammit to Ammit

A/N: Boatloads of Ra-damned homework.

Argh! I have to look up Marie Antoinette, (just to brag I have been researching, she didn't actually say "let them eat cake") do a science project, read three chapters of Honors English stuff (and answer detailed questions on the reading in "Complete Sentences",) twenty five vocabulary words, study for a History test and of course the usual accursed math. And somehow on the weekend I still don't get sleep.

But wait, there's more! I have a totally booked weekend and my little brother has virtually no homework! How does this HAPPEN? I wish I was a tombrobber sometimes. No homework...

Thank you to saiyanprincess711 for the review. :) Sorry 'bout the rant. Enjit the story! *attempts cheery smile but scowls instead*

****Leth's POV****

AS WE summoned our own horses and followed Xarius, I mulled over thoughts in my head, to occupy my brain for the long, long ride to our hideout.

The girl was sort of pretty, I'd give her that.

Weellll... More cute than pretty. Her redeeming features were a bright pair of pale green eyes and of course that mane of waist-length red hair. She wasn't really remarkable, and when we looked closer, we noticed average flaws such as huge ears and a small nose.

She couldn't have been more than nine, about two or three years younger than Bakura.

Even though the towheaded master thief was twelve (compared to our seventeen and eighteen, and even older) he was our leader, due to those unreadable cobalt eyes and that fearsome pair of hands that caused wicked damage to the Pharaoh's treasure. These long and thin and rough and fast fingers were known in the markets and streets as inevitable. Inevitable that at some point they'd hold your valuables.

Senuhet started a bet for if Bakura had killed before. We all agreed he had without even considering it..

Bakura, the self-titled Thief King, was a restless person, and something about the way he walked, an effortless strut, contrasted deeply with the way he slept (when he did rest at all, that is). Sprawled out like a god on his luxurious bed, he slept the deep sleep of a young boy, leading us all to conclude his childhood had been stolen from him.

In terms of mental maturity, Bakura was unquestionably a fully-grown man at twelve years old. I couldn't imagine what went on under that shaggy head of hair so bleached by the sun it was white-grey now.

In his sleep, dreams whirling like dust around his head, he talked. This habit of... almost confession, I supposed... was the only vulnerability he had. In a soft sleepy voice he spoke earnestly of sunlight in a hot alley, a boy named Pa'at and especially, almost nightly, a woman named Nyx.

When he woke, and caught us watching, after we begged and inquired him half to death, he always gave his usual "dreaming about town, stop asking me questions."

My reverie ended with the sudden halt of my grey horse and the usual feeling of nausea at the speed of the stop. Dismounting our horses and tying them to a half-buried piece of metal designed for this purpose, we exchanged nervous glances, then began the short walk, Xarius carrying our asleep captive.

Wow.. Sleeping at a time like this was either a sign of audacity or exhaustion, probably the latter, I assumed. From her sealed shut eyes to the heavy breathing making her flat stomach move, the young girl looked dead to the world.

We were approaching the hideout, a half-built shelter of wood and linen sheets basking in the noon's sun... the crude frame of this shelter was an innocent-seeming cover to a world of sparkly golden things we had stolen from kings long dead.

"Baku!"

The brown haired teen was pushing his luck, I thought, as Xarius continued calling Bakura by his idiotic nickname.

With a soft rustle Bakura emerged from the hideout. He wordlessly picked up our captive from Xarius' arms.

"Light as air, little river girl.. Lucky I saved you...that hair is the brightest I have ever seen..."

Bakura lightly danced his fingers over the wreath of fiery red hair.

"Why did you bring her back? I assumed once I saved her you'd dump her with the locals and then fish for dinner, like I asked you to."

Bakura's eyes of quiet disapproval made a hot flush of shame race to my cheeks. He frowned and we all looked down at the sand as if it was the most riveting thing in Egypt.

"Well now you blew it," Bakura snapped, rolling his steely eyes, his anger and his normally quiet voice's loudness mounting by the syllable, "she knows who we are! We can't dump her somewhere now! Do you know if she IS a palace girl, as her paleness suggests, how much more my head on a plate would be worth! This month the reward is already an all time high! People are starving, for Osiris' sake, and you have no idea what they'd do jus t to turn one of us in!"

My head full of the ache of guilt and fear of punishment, I shyly ventured, "Maybe we should kill her."

Bakura spat. "Mu'ut, Leth, another thousand shekels on my head, just what I needed, wanted for another murder... Kill her? That's a bad idea! You imbeciles, why did you... argh! I should feed you to Ammit, dammit!"

The use of our little joke didn't calm us, even though usually Bakura used it with a light heart.

He did not have a light heart right now. His eyes burned with fury. "Now we have to steal MORE food, get MORE water, get handcuffs and make the hideout bigger, because keeping her hostage is now the Ra-damned ONLY OPTION!"

-Will update ASAP .Peace,Shiny:D- Reviews are loved! :)


	3. Captivesitting

A/N: Urgh. Math should die. But it's getting more like spring every day now, so it's hard to be angry at anything. Whohhoo-summer's JUST a bit closer! :) Anyway, enjoy. Thanks and cookies to the reviewers :3 I'm gonna try to make this one longer, OK? And sorry for the delay. I have two school projects and an English report going at once. :P

:) Writing and watching Glee at the same time. Technology is _amazing._

******Holly's POV******

"Mmogghmmm..."

A/N: You spelling meany-people, yes. That is an actual word. It's the noise I make when waking up, too. Get used to it. XD

I woke with a sleepy moan in a dark, too-warm room, sure I'd dreamt the whole affair of drowning and all.

Sadly, that was not the case.

"Wwwwwwaaaaake upppppp," came a laughter-filled voice from a few feet away. One of the men, a short, stocky guy with brownish-tannish hair (at least from what my tired eyes squinted to see) smiled mischievously as he lounged on the sandy floor.

Oh no. It wasn't a dream...

And he wasn't talking to me, was he? I really hoped not, because I was too paralyzed with fear to respond. Now really, imagine waking in a strange, dark place, with hurting and half-bleeding legs and back, surrounded by a bunch of practically full grown, almost adult men who look more than capable of murder.

Added bonus: In this situation, imagine being a ten-year-old girl.

So to sum it up, I was terrified.

"Bakura's back," Xarius' voice drifted over my head, toward the other boy on the floor, who, judging by his tense posture, was apparently guarding me from escaping.

"Oh boy, just what we needed. Was Leth with him?"

"No. He went himself. Running." Xarius shook his head as if this was usual and they were chiding this Bakura person for doing it.

"Bakura?" I ask nervously.

"Your mas- our comrade," Xarius explained, just as Leth came sweeping into the room, bringing sand and sarcasm with him.

"The girl is totally badass. We should train her. She's so deadly, she's scared of me!"

Leth laughed. He smiled his horribly evil smile and reached to touch my face. I recoiled, paling considerably.

"See?" Leth murmured, and began stroking my arm, the feeling of his fingers running down my skin sending cold shocks of fear through my veins. "I'm not gonna hurt you, baby."

"P-ple-please don't," I managed.

Leth started running his hands through my hair, smirking.

"Get away!" I shrieked, jumping back in alarm.

"What's going on here?"

The dominant presence in the room shifted _instantly _to the new arrival, even though he was decidedly... shorter than the other men. He was barefoot, as the rest were, and shirtless with one of those open robes, except his was a deep and regal red. He had tan skin and muscles all over, and his _face..._He had a strikingly unusual scar across his right cheek and a smirk doubtless plastered across every criminal wanted notice in the country. Long, unkempt, sunbleached pale white-blonde (but the blonde was in no way visible, just the white) hair fell a little past his ears. Finally there was his eyes, the mirror to his soul, as the legend was.

Two miniature hurricanes, twirling and exploding destruction through the whole outer iris, until at the calm of the storm, his black circular pupils, there was knowledge, seriousness, tragedy even.

"I asked, what's going on on here."

He stood like the Pharaoh_, _I reflected, my stomach fluttering with worry. Like he owned the whole place. Like he ran the desert. Like he ruled Egypt.

"Nothing?" Xarius-_squeaked_-? This young boy was controlling these men with fear?

Impressive.

"Hello."

"H-h-w-wa-who are you?"

"I am Bakura."

Bakura?

That sketch in the pal-

So this was the elusi-

Hold on, he was-

I'd seen him som-

He was talked ab-

"Oh." is what came out of my mouth after that fast barrage of questions and thoughts exploded in my brain.

(I sounded SO INTELLIGENT. "Oh?" REALLY?)

"And what is your name, river girl?" he murmured, studying my face, his cobalt eyes impassive.

"H-Holly," I said, a little too loudly and anxiously. That stupid BOY made me more worried than the MEN did, all because of his commanding presence.

"'Holly' is not an Egyptian name..." Bakura said quietly. The sound of his voice send chills down my back (he sounded like he was summoning a god with those few words because the room fell _dead_ _silent_. It was disturbing) and I shivered, even though it was a humid day.

"Ummm..."

_I had no idea what to say. If I revealed my **true **identity, he'd be willing to ransom the hell out of me. If I lied, and he found out, who knew what he'd do? There was only one option left- try and run._

_(A/N: You guys are so fantastic for waiting, Im'a publish my other chapter too! So this now continues as the third chapter in what would have been the fourth. Enjoy, you deserve it- 3)_

**_****_Keht's Turn Baby- er, uh, captive- sitting*******

My comrades were idiots.

What did they do this time? Let's start with the basics.

#1: (one) First they blatantly disobeyed Bakura when I was barely there. I was looking for the hunting party of the high priests, not paying attention to their splashing in the river like children.

#2: (two) Next, they saddled me with this small, naive redhead who actually tried to run away. We caught her, needless to say, but for ages she was next to _me,_ while the others were out and gone, and she was chirping away like the _twit _she was.

#3: (three)-

"Why am I staying in this room? Who are you? Why am I here? I'm scared of that Bakura boy. He's weird. Where'd he come from? What do you people do to get horses? Are you rich? What's that shiny thing!"

My teeth ground together in my hesitation from the primitive instinct: kill her.

"Holly, stop asking questions. You're our captive. You're supposed to be _trembling in fear. _Either you're a bad captive or I'm a bad... captee."

"It's 'captor.'"

"Oh, shut up."

******Senuhet's Turn Captive-sitting******

I was folding the linen towels on the pallet we laid out, when-

"Hi. Um, Khet left, so now he said you gotta watch me."

I turned to see our new "responsibility," Holly.

"All right," I said absently, flipping the cloths in my hands deftly so I could fold them better. "Just please keep out of my way."

"Okay!"

She skipped off innocently. I was glad to be relieved of my duties. That is, until...

"SENUHET!"

Leth sounded really angry, to understate things a lot.

"What?" I said, my tone somewhat defensive.

"Ya know that dress Bakura says he stole from Isis' chamber? You know, the one he keeps in the box by the horse tie thing? To use his words, 'for when someday Leth wants to impress a girl with a present?'"

"Yeah..."

"Well, Holly's messing with it."

"B-but..."

"You were supposed to watch her!"

******Xarius' Turn Captive-Sitting******

After an hour, or a small century, with the girl I came to some deep important self realizations.

I hate children.

Thus:

I am never having a wife, girlfriend or Ra forbid anything that would lead to me getting a daughter. Especially not if she would ever grow into this type of monstrosity.

******Bakura's Turn Captive-Sitting******

"Ever been apprenticed?" Bakura asked me. His eyes were scary, and I was nervous.

"No..."

"Well I'm thinking I was going to apprentice you. For seven years."

"In what!" I spluttered.

"Tomb robbery."

"WHAT?"

Please review! Thanks so much! Updating ASAP. Peace, Shiny :)


	4. By Fear

A/N: Dammit, I'm so sorry! I feel so bad. I didn't have comp access for awhile. I'm sorry! Just read. I swear this lateness will never happen again.

Apologetic face.

****Holly's POV****

I still was with them. I was pretty sure they were all tomb-robbers. (They were all so tan.)

Three days of sunburn, bothersome sandstorms, and scary moments had passed. In other words, right now...

My other captors were out (they had said they were going to the river). I was here alone with Bakura.

****Bakura's POV****

She still was with us. I was pretty sure she was a princess of the palace. (She was really pale.)

Three days of mishaps, shattered treasure, and klutziness had passed. In other words, right now...

The others were out fetching water at the river and doubtless eyeing Mahad's good-looking cousin, Cahent (I knew she traded there on this day of the month). I was alone here with Holly.

She had a way of looking at me that slightly put me on edge. Reminded me a little of a tricky pickpocket victim. For her credit, I thought, watching her watch me, she was really rather observant. Maybe she wasn't a palace girl.

Well. She WAS obnoxious. So I still wasn't entirely certain of anything.

I'd given Keht, Khalfani and Senuhet treasure to exchange for whatever they wanted in town later. Keht would get his usual rope and grappling hook attachments, Khalfani would probably buy new weapons, and Senuhet would buy little metal scraps, papyrus, and ibis quills.

It was a stupid idea to give Leth or Xarius gold, we learned the hard way. Leth loved betting and gambling away everything we had. Xarius spent his gold too fast: fine clothes that wore out anyway, extravagant food, and women.

Based on how appealing girls seemed already, I knew I was headed down the same path.

I'd sent the men to town with a rule this time: under no circumstances could they reveal themselves. Hoods up at all times. No exceptions. Zip, nada, zilch.

They better not make fools of themselves, I thought half-nervously. I didn't want to bail them out of prison again. We were all worth too much right now.

"Um, Bakura?"

Holly was speaking to me. I shook off my thoughts. "What?"

"Remember that thing you said about um..."

"Apprenticing you? I don't know when. It was just an idea."

I watched her perplexity and mentally laughed at how she assumed I had "read her mind".

_Exactly what kind of powers do they think I have? Even the men..._

I attempted to shake off the thought because with that thought came the answer_ they have fear-_and with Fear came memories.

**_the village- my village- was_**

**_b  
>u<br>r  
>n<br>i  
>n<br>g_**

**_d  
>o<br>w  
>n<em>**

**_the smoke swirled into the air, mixing perfectly and horribly with the screams of anguish and the cries of children and newborn terror in a normally innocent place. the sky was as red as blood while that exact substance, thick and dark, was illuminated on the dirt by the slowly rising sun-even Ra didn't want to watch the massacre._**

**_but the men, the tall and dark men with their long regal robes and their fancy clothes, so out of place in the framing of the doorway, normally they didn't even set foot in a place this poor, were scowling._**

**_and the tall and dark-haired woman with beautiful clear blue eyes stood defiantly in front of them, still pale from the death of my father. she made a hand motion that ripped my soul- she wanted me to go? but without my mother I couldn't-_**

**_No Bakura, no, you must run._**

**_knife came close to her face, her defiant and beautiful and- her face was so like mine-_**

**_my feet pounded out the rhythm of my mother's violent death, and I whipped around the corner, not seeing her shadow falling with her lifeless form as the blood splattered the walls and kept I running away like a coward and her screams followed me all the way out into the desert._**

**_at night, when the large ball of what-was-once-hope left the sky, and the stars came out, I stared up at the moon, the sun's dark opposite, and wondered why I deserved this. why the hell the gods deserted my family and my friends and my home all at once._**

**_what did I do wrong?_**

**_It takes a village to raise a child._**

**_But it takes a village to break one too._**

"Bakura?"

I realized I had been lost in the stupid reverie I promised never to go into again, dammit.

And worse, our captive was staring at me like I was an idiot.

"What?" I asked bitterly, my lips feeling dry, my tongue mildly thick. I had really been depressed at that flashback, I reflected angrily. I needed to stop feeling sad about what had happened _years_ ago.

"You were just zoning out there," Holly said quietly.

"Oh."

_So much for my fearsome image,_ I thought.

"Yeah..." I started awkwardly.

"Okay." Holly said simultaneously as I said my "yeah".

When the men got back, Holly was asleep and I was alternatively sitting on the pile of linen sheets and pacing back and forth at random intervals.

"Hey Bakura," Leth greeted me, sweeping his hood back, his hair flopping into his eyes as usual.

"Hey."

Leth had a sack of gambling treasures, and I hadn't even given him money, the cheater. I smiled. "Go put them in the corner."

Khalfani heard my order to Leth and dumped a handful of knives in the corner too, and Senuhet _had_ stolen papyrus and stuff. I was bang on.

"Did you take off your hoods?"

"Nope," was the chorus.

"Good."

A few more days of boredom passed. Even robbing tombs was boring now. Everything was so boring.

We were stuck in a rut of boredom.

Funnily enough, the only non-boring thing was Holly. Her antics annoyed the hell out of us, but at least she was making our lives not deadly boring.

I decided I had to train her. It would be pretty cool to have a girl as a tomb-robber; she was small and slight and fast-seeming, and would be half-decent with apprenticeship.

I went to Khalfani. He was second in command, after all.

"Hey, Khal."

I proposed my idea about training Holly.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Bakura.. I'm sick of you. You think you can just stroll in here and replace me as leader. You're opressive and a tyrant!"

His eyes blazed angrily, and he drew a knife, holding it threateningly.

He has always been rebellious, but I didn't know it would be like-

My hand was at my pocket before I could think and my gold dagger was in my hand as he swung and nearly hit my shoulder. We whirled at each other in a blaze of fury, dancing with death, back and forth back and forth and back and-

"Argh!"

Khalfani groaned with pain as my blade caught the side of his face. But his metal sheath bounced the harsh sunlight into my eyes and in the split second I squinted, he lunged, his powerful arms tensing as he swung the knife as my head with incredible force. My foot moved as I slid aside and he stumbled- onto my knife.

In a split second of agony he writhed in pain, blood spilling onto the sand as he fell. With a sickening thump he hit the ground and lay still.

I felt a cold emotionlessness spread through me as I stared at his body.

Better go bury him before sunrise.

I felt a chill shoot down my back- someone watching me.

A pair of green emerald eyes gazed at me from a crack in the door. A pair of _horrified_ eyes.

"M-m-monster..." came the whisper.

A/N: Okay. Hope you like. Next chapter decently soon. Sorry and all.

-Peace, Shiny-


	5. Promises

A/N: Yay! Selective procrastination FTW! I can procrastinate schoolwork, but not my fanfic.

Ya know what, I changed my mind about Set's name; Seth works better. Tee hee :)

Reviews are loved while the reviewers get virtual cookies...3 Happy late Valentine's Day!

Enjoy my lovely early update!

****** Akhenaden's**** POV*****

Today, for the first day in months, we saw the tomb-robbers.

Elusive bastards dart from place to place. We _never_ catch them, and today, there they were, in plain sight at the river. They threw a cloth-covered burden into the water; but when Mahad, Isis and I pursued them they were gone.

I got a fast look at the lead boy, the one on the black horse, his regal cape flapping around him.

His familiar blue eyes glinted as he saluted me. I feigned anger... but in my mind I was relieved.

"_Make me a promise, Akhenaden..." my lover whispered, twining her fingers around mine gently, her pale face serious._

"_Anything for you!" I laughed. I was so young then, careless and arrogant, the laughing, taunting rebel child of my father. But I was reclusive at home, and bitter at my younger sibling for scoring the Pharaoh inheritance, the kingship _I_ wanted._

_I planned against him. I planned to forge the Items from human tributes._

_Right now we were sitting in Nyx's bedroom, small and shabby, the wooden walls bearing holes and the patches of linen a poor attempt to cover the hut from the harsh elements._

"_I understand about the human sacrifices, my love," she said, her blue eyes, almost cobalt, gazing into mine. "When the soldiers come, in two years I will have arranged by then to be married to a ship-builder. Then, the day of the killings, I can flee with my husband. When he abandons me someday I will come back to you."_

"_I wish I could marry you.." I said wistfully._

"_I know," she said sadly. "As do I."_

_She gave me a peck on the cheek._

"_What about the promise?" I muttered softly._

"_Akhenaden, I want you to swear to me that if this doesn't work out, you must have Kul Elna slaughtered anyway, even if I am there. For you. I know you want to become Pharaoh and I'm willing to do this for you.."_

"_B-but- no!" I cried in shock and horror. I wouldn't kill the woman I cared for..._

"_Swear it."_

"_Fine. But it will never happen," I said, great reluctance filling my heart._

"_You understand if your father finds out about our relationship he will kill me and disinherit you," Nyx said almost teasingly, her long dark hair falling in waves down her curvy form, as those ridiculously seductive eyes focused on my face. "I still don't know why we are in love..."_

_As usual I was struck speechless by her beauty...but.. A palace boy, rolling in wealth and a girl from Kul Elna, poor as anything... we were _not_ meant to be together..._

"_Oh, Nyx, I don't know...it just... happened," I whispered and she smiled,-"Shh, I know", she murmered- and pulled me_ down_ into a long and passionate kiss..._

_A year later we lay together on the bed in my room, our hands touching, and discussed my quickly-becoming-real plan. She was married... I knew that much.. but I wasn't expecting this..._

""_Naden?" she started nervously, using my nickname as if to cushion the blow._

"_Mmm?" I murmered against the soft skin of her forehead as I gently kissed there._

"_I...well...I'm...with child."_

_Shocks of "**WHAT?"** split my veins in pieces, followed immediately by the cold terror thar ripped into me like a sharp blade._

"_Wh-whose is it?"_

_She understood my panic. Gently cradling my cheek in her hand, she said "Not yours.."_

_I exhaled in relief._

"_I will name it Aurera if it is a girl, after my grandmother... if it is a boy, I will name him Bakura."_

_She already seemed attached to this little child. I put my hand on her stomach, and felt an unexpected rush of love for the unborn baby._

"_Nyx, love, whatever it is, I'm sure it will be just as beautiful as you."_

"_Oh, you flirt!" she giggled._

**_I stood as the sky burned around me and the world fell to the fire, the inescapable, injust flames of death. I held her body in my arms and wept for the plan to save her that had fallen through and wept for young Bakura, barely seven. I wept for even her husband, dead next to her on the floor._**

**_And I wept for her and me and us, our illegal beautiful relationship._**

_A note scrawled on a scrap of papyrus clung to Nyx's bloody form._

Make sure he is okay.

_Even in death she can boss me around..._

_I knew he would be wary... but this? Bakura took escape to a whole new level. I spent days tracking the now-ten boy through the desert._

_He had made a name for himself through stealing, I found out, which amused me slightly._

_For such a small boy, "Thief King" was quite a name to grow into._

_ I finally found him, talked with him._

_He was so like her, his eyes as big and expressive and appraising as hers, yet filled with a heartbreaking, world-is-cruel sadness far too mature for his age._

_A tentative truce was established between us, the truce being once a month he had to show me somehow he was alive. Not benefitting me or him. This was for Nyx. _

_And the boy returned to his solitary desert life, first, in defiance, outdoing his petty thefts with acts of rebellious grandeur, robbing the tombs of the ones who slaughtered his family and friends, then, growing to like the rush, robbing any tomb, choosing nothing in particular..he grew to love shiny things and became quite the accomplished thief._

_He need never know that while other people had wielded the blades to physically murder his village, it was my flawed plan that so tragically killed his parents._

_And now..._

As I watched the almost teenage thief ride off, his salute a cocky acknowledgment of our half-truth of a truce, I observed his wolf whistling at girls and his big-ego smirk.

I whispered, the memories and sadness and a touch of love lingering in my voice, "Hey, Nyx... Your boy is growing up."


	6. Ghosts

A/N: Woot! Early updates _again!_ *passes out cookies to the reviewers* I have more cookies. Come on, just click that little blue link... Please? *pleading face*

On a few plot-related topics: This story is planned to start as more humorous and get darker. So in case you haven't noticed, the T is for violence, sorry, just to be safe. I won't get worse than that with the gore, I promise. When and if, (pssht, I can't believe I'm even _writing_ this) I end up with an *whispers in a dreaded tone* _implied lemon_, I'll tell you guys first.

I obviously do not own Yugioh. If I did, I would be rich, first of all, second, I'd be sure as heck avoiding all homework and thus updating a LOT more, and third, I would own Thief King Bakura. And if I owned Thief King Bakura, HE'D probably be writing this, and probably cursing a lot, and probably spelling things wrong.

Mildly ADHD Sidetrack: _Owning Thief King Bakura. Wouldn't that be lovely...? XD_

Enjoy!

-******Bakura's POV******

It was done. Khalfani now lay at the bottom of the river, for the alligators to get, I didn't care about him anymore, had I ever cared for him? _No._

We sat silently around the piece of metal near the hideout. Normally we'd be talking, teasing, taunting one another.

But tonight, the men were, as I'd expected, quiet.

It had been a long time since they'd seen me lose my temper.

Holly had fainted on the spot when she saw Khalfani's blood-soaked lifelessness. Leth had caught her and put her on _my_ sleeping mat, of all of them. I didn't ask.

When she'd woken, she had utterly obeyed our every command. My accidental display of power showed her this wasn't a game anymore. We could kill her if we had to. It was as easy as flicking a knife over her skin and pushing the blade into her veins...stopping her heart.

_Comply, or die._ I smiled at the little phrase-we made fun of Seth's prisoner-catching policies with it. Holly had instantly _implied _that she must _comply _or _die._

There was nothing particularly funny about this. But I raised my face to the blue endless sky, the sun radiating heat that bounced the crazy sounds of my laughter, the laughter of a madman, up through the sand dunes. I couldn't stop; Ra was baking the tears off my face, the sounds were echoing in dead silence. Khalfani's blood still stained the sand where I stood, a permanent mark of his stupidity. "Don't mess with me," I choked, the sound growly and twisted and warped and frightening, my body doubled over, wracked with uncontrollable spasms of laughter, clear tears that I imagined as blood, running, pooling, down my face. The tears oozed into my scar and this made me laugh harder. "I'll make blood come out of your eyes and sting your face."

I wasn't making much sense. I imagined my stomach split open from the pain of my sides heaving, which set me off again.

The men watched me, still in slightly horrified silence. Finally I gasped for breath, the laughter finally ceasing, my mouth open and my eyes filled with hilarity, standing on a dry patch of enemy blood.

_That Bakura, he is a mad lunatic! _I remembered the little Isis remarking when she heard of my deeds.

"I'm not mad," I wheezed, my breath hitching hysterically. I began to giggle again. The sound could've frighten the ghosts that flew towards me as I raised my hands up to my shoulders in a shrug. The ghosts encircled me and I chuckled at their fuzzy embrace; the warm feelings that spread through my stomach at the tickles, and oh, what funny _faces_ they had!

I abruptly stopped laughing.

One ghost stopped spinning around me. She had blue eyes same as mine.

I felt a punch in my stomach. I had disrespected my mother.

"I'm sorry," I sobbed, falling to my knees, tears beginning to hit the sand.

"So sorry!"

My voice was a wretched scream of terror, apologizing to her and all the others.

_That Bakura, he is a mad lunatic._

******Leth's POV******

Occasionally, Bakura lost it. We cowered at his anger and bitter sarcastic rage. We dreaded the snap of his rough whip on our backs.

But sometimes he did more than lose it.

As he knelt in the sand and blabbered, high-voiced, talking earnestly and quickly, jabbering away to no one, his voice crazed and scared, this was one of the times we feared him most of all.

With a tacit nod at one another, Senuhet and I gently lifted the smaller boy, who didn't protest. We carried him inside and laid him gently on his bed, and he stopped talking immediately, curling into a ball, protecting himself from the dangers he imagined.

"He's so young.." I murmered. At times like this, when terror overtook him, he seemed so childlike, so vulnerable.

Senuhet sat beside Bakura and told him quiet stories about nothing in particular until Bakura half-calmed, his warm body mildly relaxing its clenched shape, his eyes closing gently.

Holly watched in fascination in the corner.

"Panic attack," I murmered to her, feeling an odd need to explain his behavior, to protect him from her judgements. These occasional panic attacks were the times we were forced to remember his juvenility.

He was only twelve.

I began hearing a soft noise coming from Holly's lips. A lyrical piecing-together of words, with a tune that sounded oddly familiar, drifting slowly, warmly into the room.

I sat hypnotized as she sang.

Senuhet tilted his head, analyzing- he had absolute perfect pitch, and even he seemed to find it compelling- and eventually a soft, dreamy smile pulled on the edges of his curved lips.

Bakura smiled, snuggled into his pillow, and drifted off.

For some reason, none of us stopped Holly's song. When Keht and Xarius came in, they listened too. Xarius' chattiness was stilled by the gentle, sweet, almost _hauntingly _beautiful noise that hung in the air.

With a shy smile, Holly stopped singing, as Bakura opened his eyes.

"Thank you," he said directly to her, looking at her directly, emerald green on cobalt blue, and neither flinched. It was the first time they'd made eye contact since Bakura killed Khalfani.

"You are strong, in your own way," he added, touching her cheek with two fingers gently, as he walked silently out of the hideout.

A/N: Sorry if it was short. And Bakura is mildly insane there, sorry for that too. XD Please review or something, don't be afraid to PM

(: Peace, Shiny :)


	7. Five Years Later, No Tomb Robbery Yet

_A/N: Ahahahahaha, no. I was busy, with schoolwork and gigundo projects and yeah, no. I am unforgivably late with the update. *dies a little inside* THREE MONTHS LATE._

_Plus, the chapter got burnt off my flashdrive. Technology's a bitch._

_Yeah. No._

_*has plotbunny*_

_Enjoy, please, or something, or don't. Yeah. Please review, or don't, or meh._

_-Shiny-_

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><p><em>*UNFORGIVABLE TIMESKIP OF FIVE YEARS- OH YES, I DID! OH YEAH! I JUST SKIPPED TIME! I'M SO BAD! OKAY, I'LL STOP WITH THE SARCASTIC COMMENTS!)<em>

_*****Holly's POV****_

"Let's go rob the Pharaoh."

"Let's not and say we did," Xarius grunted.

"'Kay." Leth seemed perfectly fine with this answer.

The scene was something almost funny: my fellow tomb-robbers sitting in the same room as me while I fixed my hair, making snarky comments, ignoring the fact that I had grown twice my height in one night. They were normally so observant.

Well, maybe I hadn't grown _that_ much, but hey, I wasn't the only one who'd gotten any bigger.

"Let's go rob your mother," was Bakura's entering comment. The eleven-year-old who used to make me laugh was long gone. My mentor replaced him, and my mentor wasn't a jester half as much as he used to be. The boy was a man, a fearsome and merciless bandit whose looks entirely reflected his reputation. His white-blonde hair had grown a little longer and shaggier, he'd outgrown his (if he'd ever had it) boyish physique and gotten an impressive set of muscles. Somehow, he still remained quite lanky; built like a runner and faster than most living things. He kept a few things that couldn't be outgrown: his solemn, grave eyes and his mark of distinction, the scar on his face. Every aspect of his being suggested he was definitely a fifteen-year-old, free to do as he pleased. And that's exactly what he was.

"Don't be bugging me about my mother," Leth scowled. "Plus, she's sort of dead."

"Riiiiight, forgot that," Bakura turned around and made a vague gesture at me, the gesture that meant "Yeah, sure."

I smiled and nodded, and he scratched at his messy hair, pondering something.

* * *

><p>Bakura had been spending his evenings for the past five years teaching me the ten thousand ways to rob, plunder and steal, and some things I was better at than others.<p>

Running, for one, was brutal. The boys all had the physical capability to run all night in order to escape pursuit. This was not my strong point, and even now, I struggled to run for even two hours without stopping. Bakura would glance at the slow pace and tut quietly, disapproving. "Say the pharaoh's men are chasing you," he would reprimand, glaring at me through cobalt eyes of stern rage, "you won't have time to breathe," he always added in a low growl.

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><p>Stealing was even worse. It had taken six months of sneaking up on blindfolded Leth and taking money without him hearing me for Bakura to say "Meh, mediocre." Then, guess what, <em>another six months<em> of discussing how to pickpocket from random strangers in the market. When I protested that firstly, he hadn't even let me go pickpocketing at all, and secondly, in tomb robbery we didn't even need this, he struck me across the face, snapping "Shut up, ungrateful little rat!"

There was a _bad_ bruise there in the morning.

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><p>Rock climbing: What was <em>that?<em> Bakura hated to let a clumsy beginner have any _real _fun, so instead of practicing risky and cool stuff like scaling tomb walls and climbing into crevices, I had to learn knot-tying. Khet tried to make it interesting, but by the sixteenth kind of rope twirl, I was dozing off like Xarius did when he was extremely drunk. But oh, wait, there's more. By the time knot-tying was over and I knew the knots back and forth and diagonally and upside-down, Bakura still found me "unworthy" of climbing skill training, so he taught me to- I'm shaking with excitement- dig holes. Yep, dig holes, in order to get into tombs. Of course this was a "practical application" and I never got to truly tunnel into a tomb for Bakura's fear of a newbie screwing up a potential robbery.

Dammit.

* * *

><p>However of an impatient teacher he was, my mentor was still extremely mysterious, and that never changed. He talked about things in his sleep that he never explained and he usually vanished for hours at a time. Even the other men didn't know where he was roughly 90% of these occasions.<p>

"Guess what we're doing today," the white-headed thief king singsonged, snapping me back to reality, "we're robbing a tomb."

"OHMYGODNOWAY!" Leth fell over in pure absolute fake surprise, Xarius dropped a fancy vase and broke it, Senuhet made a face that suggested crazed shock, and Keht's mouth gaped open in amazement. "Really?"

"Not you, you dolts," Bakura scowled at the men and their sarcasm.

"AWW, MANNNN!" was the collective chorus of sad voices.

I was the only surprised-for-real one at his sudden announcement.

"But you've never taken me tomb-robbing for real before," I blurted out.

I was very worried, underneath all of my ecstatic thrills, about how all of this was going to work out. I'd never really been alone with him for a whole night. What if he started questioning me about my past life? Then I was really screwed.

_Really_ screwed.

"Well, I am taking you now. Don't look so surpised. You're still not good enough. Now hurry up." Bakura tossed over his shoulder as he walked out to fetch his white horse.

"Okay," I stammered.

"Dude. You have to get ready."

Xarius threw a huge brown robe at me, and it engulfed my head and shoulders entirely.

"Whassthis?" My voice was muffled as I fought my way through the sleeves, finding myself out of captivity in a panicked few seconds. (Thank God. Who wants to get strangled by a robe?)

"Your disguise."

I noticed that the sandy-colored robe matched the desert sand perfectly. Why hadn't I seen it before?

"Oh."

"Your hair kinda messes ya up, though," Leth noted dryly from the pallet.

I tucked my bright-red hair, grown a few inches longer these couple years, into my robe hood.

"Better? And what are we doing, stealing a sand dune? Who's gonna catch us, the dead people police?"

"Besides the point, kid, besides the point."

"COME ON!" Bakura hollered, and Xarius stuffed a small canvas bag into my hands and shoved me out the door.


	8. I'm On A Horse

A/N: Look, I updated! So many tests, so much homework, damn you plotbunny! I had to use one of those humane traps to catch it, where you put the carrot in and a string snaps and it's stuck in a cage hopping restlessly around. Anyway, I have it, and while it's here I won't let it go. Bam: Chapter Eight!

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><p>"Well...?"<p>

We'd been riding across the sand for a good twenty minutes before Bakura spoke.

"What?"

"Are you nervous or something? You're awfully quiet."

"No..." I let the word trail off, nearly biting a hole in my lip when the horse gave a shudder and halted.

"Why are we stopping?"

"Water," was the short, almost impatient answer. We had reached the massive dune in front of the Nile, and Bakura quickly dismounted, tied the horses to the wooden stake in the sand we'd previously used, and helped me off my own mount.

"Uh, thanks...?" I wasn't used to seeing this gentlemanly side of him. Once he had become accustomed to my presence, he had fallen into treating me like a boy; making me keep my hair fairly short and roughhousing with me the same he would with any of the others. When we bathed in the river, I was expected to strip entirely like the rest of them, which was admittedly beginning to get awkward because I had recently discovered that I wasn't exactly flat-chested anymore.

Bakura had also kept his apparent mind-reading powers from years ago. Another example came up just now as I mulled this over: he spoke once more. "By the way, you should wear a shirt when we wash off from now on."

"Why?!" A note of rage crept into my tone, because what did he expect? And if he thought this, did it mean he noticed? Oh Ra, was he staring, did he care, why was I in paranoia mode? Damn.

"'Cuz you're older now." The typically clipped sentence, as if he was trying to cut down on the number of words he used.

"Oh." I won't deny that there wasn't a feeling of relief inside me at the ease of answering his statement.

The jug Bakura had brought was filled quickly, and we were soon on our way across the dunes again, the sun high over my right shoulder. This time, neither of us spoke until Bakura called the horses to a stop again.

"See that?" He was pointing to the subtle indentation of a square in the ground, right where our horses had been about to step.

"Yeah."

"What kind of tomb is it?"

Ever the teacher, that man was. I sighed.

"A mastaba* tomb."

"And what's wrong with it?"

"The three stone slabs on top are missing."

This type of tomb usually had an aboveground component made up of three or four decorated wood or rock squares that clearly marked it as a burial place. However, the gravediggers had evidently gotten wise and decided not to make it so obvious, and so the tomb's contents were all underground. This forethought and hiding might be an indication that this tomb had lots of treasure in it. I voiced this opinion excitedly to Bakura.

"Meh," he said, but I could tell by his face he appreciated my examinations, and found them to be things he had not yet thought of. (Or, he was admiring the sun's pretty, arched rays across the sky, or he was just thinking of food. Either way, he looked impressed.)

"Okay, so what do we do," he said flatly, boredly.

"Look around, nobody's there. Then sit there casually, then look around again, nobody's there, then get out something heavy and drop it on the square. If the thing you dropped breaks-"

"-then the entrance is stone. Good." Bakura pulled a clay pot out of his endless bag and slammed it hard against the tomb's entryway. Instead of breaking, a splitting noise was heard.

"What does that mean?" Bakura's eyes lit up as he tapped around the newly broken area with a small tool.

"It's made of wood."

"So what?"

"We can punch through it with the heavy thing."

"But?"

"We can't stand on it."

"Why not?" He loved playing devil's advocate; a little smirk crossed his lips.

"We'll fall through if it breaks and damage the treasure and us."

"Acceptable." Gingerly, Bakura poked little holes in the edges of the door, then applied sudden pressure with the clay pot. The wood broke in two, revealing a pit that I guessed to be eight or nine feet deep.

"Okay. Me first," the master thief tossed over his shoulder at me as he jumped expertly into the cavern. "Watch out there for people. After a bit, I'll yell."

I handed him one end of the rope, and, taking it, he began walking into the entryway. After a few agonizing minutes...

"Muhfouzeewah!"

"What?" I yelled into the yawning cavern, dark as the inside of a cave- which it practically was.

"I said "false entryway." You can come down. Follow the rope. Is it tied to something?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Step by slow step, I slid against the wall down into the entrance chamber. "Brrr," I said aloud, clutching my arms as the chill hit me. "It's cold down here."

"You wouldn't believe," came the sarcastic, dry tone from somewhere below me. "Hurry up."

"I'm coming!"

A methodical silence fell as I progressed deeper into the passageway, on my hands and knees now, noting the fake tunnel Bakura had spotted. I was mildly in awe at the beautiful artwork painstakingly done to make it look real- how had he known?

"Stop."

I shrieked as his arms seized me and pulled me back. I had almost fallen into a pit filled with water and mud, which would have been, I guessed by the large drop, impossible to get out of.

We were on a small landing inside the tomb, and the walls had a narrow ledge around them. I noted with relief that I could stand and shuffle instead of crawling.

"Come on." Bakura's hair was messy and his cheeks were flushed. His eyes gleamed, and his tone was excited. Wordlessly, I followed him as he began to scale the ledge. When we reached the other side, he creaked open the trapdoor in the ground and shiny things glinted back at us.

_"Yes."_ Euphoria was the primary emotion in his whisper, but also sheer contentment and the thrill of the chase.

"You got a sack?"

"Yeah." I patted my brown robe, suddenly realizing what it was really for. (Xarius was getting a punch in the jaw for lying to me.) I pulled it off my shoulders, presenting it to Bakura.

"'Kay."

Bakura hopped into the chamber, and I began to hear clinking and rustling. A loud thud resonated around the small space all of a sudden, and Bakura's laugh.

"He's dead, all right."

Bored for the time being, I rifled through the small bag Xarius had given me. It contained small knives, a little horse-hair brush, and a clay jar. I frowned over these mysterious gifts until Bakura's head popped up.

"Help me, willya?"

"All right."

I leapt down somewhat less gracefully than Bakura had, then froze.

Behind Bakura, sitting amongst the gleaming heaps of treasure that we had not yet stolen, there was a man. He was dressed in the fancy robes of a priest, and he was very much alive.

"Bakura!" I squeaked, gesturing. He turned and cursed, as the man raised his sword.

"Invaders!"

"Go, go, GO!" He shoved the bag at me and I raced in a panic along the ledge, scooting across into the tunnel. My hands and knees desperately scraped against the hard stone as my heart pounded. I couldn't go fast enough, the bag was heavy behind me, but I couldn't let go! Bakura was on my heels, barking at me to move faster, I finally made it to the entryway and grappled with the rope, beginning the suddenly miles-long climb to the top. My hands were made of lead, shaking and tense, and I would've fallen and broken my legs if not for Bakura's last-minute push. I had never been so happy to feel sand beneath my feet, but the chase wasn't over yet. We ran furiously to the horses, my fingers freezing up again momentarily as I untied the knots, and we galloped away at lightning speed, the treasure bag clenched securely in my fingers.

* * *

><p>I didn't relax completely until the sun had almost gone down and we had been riding for a good hour and a half.<p>

"Stop." Bakura sounded calm, and the horses huffed to a halt, panting almost furiously at us both. He gave each a pat on the nose, then tied them to a wooden post. Why was there a wooden post all of a sudden...?

"Bakuraareyoucrazywe'reinTOWN!" I shrieked as I recognized my surroundings as not just any village, but the one closest to the palace, one of the richest villages in Egypt.

"Shut up!" He yanked me harshly behind the mud-brick shed nearby and slapped my face- hard. "Don't call me Bakura! Do you want to get us killed?! Be quiet!"

Stunned by his violent outburst, I let my voice trail away.

"Okay," I whimpered pathetically.

"Call me Bes if you have to call me anything. And you're... Cleo."

"Okay," I repeated, sucking at the blood dotting my lips.

"Oh, grow up, it was nothing." He swiped the fluid off anyway with his sleeve, then began tying his long hair up with a piece of twine. When he was done, he was a common laborer in a plain white tunic, barely recognizable. He helped me with my disguise as well, putting a wrap of brown cloth around my hair in a cover of sorts. He whispered, "We're cousins on a trip to see the Pharaoh's priests. That's our story, now stick with it."

"Mmn," I nodded and we walked together into the busy marketplace...

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><p>AN: Suspense! Suspense! xD


	9. The Wrath of the Thief King, Part One

**_WARNING! This chapter is one of the ones rated M for sexual situations and strong language. SNSFW/S (semi not safe for work/school.) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. NO ANGRY REVIEWS. Just skip this chapter or something as soon as the next one is published._**

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><p>AN: Muse's "The 2nd Law" comes out October 2nd (it's _supposed_ to... '^_^) but you can currently stream the whole thing free on iTunes. I'm not advertising, I'm just suggesting a way not to merely write like a mere mortal, but write FURIOUSLY. LIKE A BOSS. In ULTRA CAPS LOCK MODE. SCREAMING THINGS. Whoa.

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><p>"Bes."<p>

"Bes."

"BES."

Bakura, suddenly remembering his alias, responded to me with a halfhearted "What."

"What are you staring at?! We have to hurry to- I mean, we have to hurry to visit the priests."

"Mhm."

Annoyed by this new spacey version of my mentor, I followed his gaze, and groaned.

Bakura's eyes were on a girl- well, a woman really. She was obviously wealthy, with that olive-toned but considerably paler skin that meant she could afford to spend time indoors and not working. (The tomb robbers had taught me a lot about analyzing people based on clothes, skin and hair.) Long, lean legs and perfectly sculpted hips led up to a slim torso, a very developed chest, and an exotic, gorgeous face.

"You're waiting here."

His voice was dangerous, dismissing me and threatening me at the same time, and he shoved me backward harshly, ignoring my several noises of indignation.

With a feeling of nausea growing in the pit of my stomach, I watched my teacher walk over and whisper something in the lady's ear, his lips very close to- no, they were actually touching her skin. Her eyes went wide, as he lightly placed experienced hands on her waist from behind, and in about another minute, she was swooning in his arms, her mouth moving in pleasured shapes. His hair was down now, falling in shaggy waves along his face, his tunic riding suggestively low on his body, and she was looking at his well-muscled abdomen and chest in what seemed disbelief. As he picked her up with ease, she mumbled something, and his lips split into a smirk.

They disappeared into a nearby alley between two tall, expensive-looking buildings. With intent to express my rage, regardless of his later reaction (I mean, come on, we had just escaped death and he was thinking of _flirting?_) I walked closer, and the noises caught my attention. Gasps and pants and shrieks and vehement exclamations; a low chuckle or two. Based on their high pitch, none of the sounds except the laughter had come from Bakura. As my natural curiosity (curse it! But oh, if it were to disappear!) began to increase, I edged nearer and nearer.

Bakura's lower covering, the only thing that had been on him anyway, was on the ground, as was most of the woman's expensive clothing. I could see their faint silhouettes, her on her knees, almost bowing to him, but doing something else. She was making a lot of sounds again. His hand was raking mercilessly through her hair as she moved her head back and forth in a rhythm, and his neck was arched, his eyes half-shut and his expression smug and royal. I heard a low moan from her, and then his laughter once more as he tugged her back up, moving his lower body against hers. Roughly, he shoved her against the alley wall and yanked her forward so he could bite and suck on her throat.

I backed away in horror. I didn't understand what was going on. What was he doing, what were _they_ doing? I had heard of sex before, in hushed tones through my older sister, but I had been told it was an act of love between two married people to create a child. If this was sex, I was horrified at the lack of care or concern Bakura showed, the way he growled what seemed like orders into her ear and the way she followed them eagerly. Without warning, she screamed ear-shatteringly and collapsed against him, as Bakura smirked and whitish fluid covered the ground beneath him. His laugh rang out for the fourth time, the triumphant sound strangely causing me to feel an odd ache down in my stomach. I shivered and looked away, quickly running back to where he had made me stand originally, confused and irritated and bright red.

No more than a few seconds later, the man himself casually emerged, dressed again. His gaze was cocky and dominant, the gladiator with nothing to lose and everything to gain, the satisfied crocodile who has just swallowed his prey whole. His hair was barely out of place. I glared in disgust.

"What's wrong with _you?_"

"What do you think?" I crossed my arms over my chest, surprising myself with my boldness.

"A man has needs," was his flippant, bored answer. He didn't even seem out of breath.

"You're not a virgin..." A question hovered at the edge of my voice.

His uproarious howls broke an octave, and he actually got tears in his eyes.

"What do you think?" He imitated my tone, giggling a little still.

"Um?"

"The King of Thieves a virgin? The hell, girl!"

"Er..."

"I lost my virginity at thirteen, honey."

"...Oh."

"And you?" A teasing sneer played on his face.

"Um, never, obviously."

"Thought so."

"How do you know these things?"

"I can tell."

"How?"

"I just can."

"That's not an answer."

"It is now."

"Where'd that lady go?"

"Dunno."

His cryptic answers were getting me nowhere.

"Bak- Bes!"

"Ra damn, what? Your head must be exploding, honey."

"What's up with you and calling me honey now? And where are we _going_?!" Without my notice, he had begun walking and I had instinctively followed him.

"Home."

"Why did we stop in town?"

"I already told you."

"No, you didn't."

"A man has needs," he reminded me.

"What the hell, Bakura? What's wrong with you?!"

I suddenly realized my mistake.

Not saying anything, he picked me up with one hand and carried me by the neck to the entrance of town.

"Gah-" I was choking, spluttering. He shoved me onto the back of my horse and got onto his, and we rode to the hideout. His fury was thick in the air, and I was scared to death to speak at all. I had expected to be yelled at, but didn't expect this absolute ire just for revealing his name. No one had heard it anyway!

* * *

><p>Once we were outside of the wooden structure, I thought the long ride had quelled his strong emotions at least a little, but as he flung me off my mount, my cold chill of horror and the look in his eyes told me otherwise.<p>

He erupted.

"What are you, _jealous?_ Are you wishing _you_ could be that little _whore _going down on me? Do you _want me?_ What the fuck are you up to? What do you think you're _doing, _watching us, you little _pervert_?" His volume had climbed to a terrifying scream, and I buried myself in the sand, not getting up from where I'd landed.

"What's wrong with you," he mocked. _"You're the one who should be asking yourself that! You asked me that?! BEG ME FOR FORGIVENESS! BEG ME ON YOUR HANDS AND KNEES!_

"Bakura!" I finally sobbed. "I'm sorry! I don't know what's upset you s-"

His hands knotted in my hair and pulled hard, nearly pulling my scalp off, or it felt like it, anyway. My eyes watered more and I looked up at him.

"FUCK OFF."

With that, he tossed me to the ground for- what, the fifth time now?- and stormed inside, his fingernails catching my cheek and scraping hard on the way.

He slammed the door behind him.

* * *

><p>MMOORE SUSPENSE.<p> 


End file.
